I haven’t seen any Indiana Jones films previously. Well, I did see Crystal Skull when it came out in theatres, but I’m honestly not sure if that counts: that film drives so hard on the history and previous Indy films that it was very hard to appreciate at the time at first viewing. Later I’ve come to appreciate it a bit more, despite it being undoubtedly one of the less excellent Indiana Jones films.
But what I was surprised with was how… let’s just say it, how poor Indiana Jones films by and large actually are. Now, watching them at a more ripe age, and plenty of ground covered since the original release of them, it is easy to understand why they drew people to the cinemas back in the day, but in all honesty there is little in the films that actually relegates them into the status of excellence.
Except for the third, Last Crusade, which was actually a pretty much no-notes film. Bloody brilliant for many parts.
Quite the opposite of Temple of Doom, the second instalment, which was, with a word, dreadful. Almost a waste of time really, and I do not say that lightly. While Harrison Ford (as Indiana Jones), Kate Capshaw (as Willie) and even Ke Huy Quan (as Shorty) – pulling off the demanding role as a child actor – perform adequately and the production seems to be on par with other action-oriented films of the time for money, the film barely holds together for the writing and direction.
It was, in fact, so fundamentally flawed, that I could not help but take it apart for the most glaring issues: portrayal of characters, tone, and writing in character motivation.
And, in all fairness, instead of just bashing on the flaws, I am going to add suggested fixes into the narrative.
Problems in character portrayal
It’s storytelling basics that you should return to the start, at least if not practically, thematically. Temple of Doom’s opening scene is very James Bond both structurally and visually, with the radiant dance sequence followed by high action and a daring escape, but the whole scene is also factually irrelevant to the plot of the movie – this is very Bond as well, but considering how the actual plot of the movie is detached from happy-go-lucky agent adventures, the structure is detached and shattered. Nothing introduced at the beginning comes back or resolves at the end of the film.
The opening scene aims to introduce the characters (as nothing else of relevance is established) but also fails at that. The opening scene sets up Indy as a reckless adventurer ready for action, and Shorty as his street-smart right-hand man who gets him out of trouble, but the third main character, singer Willie Scott, just happens to be there. She has no reason to partake on the adventure, no personal interest in joining the fray, and no independent agency in tagging along Indy and Shorty. She dives recklessly for a valuable diamond, framing her as a hunter of treasures, but the cold-headedness she portrays here is not evident in any other part of the film, nor does her greed come up in her actions ever again. She is thus misrepresented in her own introduction. The same goes for the Chinese mobsters – we know they are ruthless and violent, and never see them again, making their introduction obsolete.
While Inidiana Jones is recognizably Indy, and his child side-kick holds his own and their relationship is portrayed as tight, the third wheel, Willie, could (and arguably should be) removed from the film altogether for the lack of agency, relevance and reason to be there. The film would function perfectly fine with her omission. The text’s lack of effort makes a disservice to Kate Capshaw’s effort to portray a character.
Problems in tone
The oppressive and constant horror of the middle is in stark contrast to the light-hearted and wacky action of the beginning and the end. The film fails to find a balance between the tones or a solid footing to stand on. If you’d want to balance between the two, this balancing act should happen at a constant pace in between parts of the film. Now Temple of Doom dives deep into the other at times, and swims to the far end of the pool at others, never mingling.
Some scenes seem to go on forever without tangible stakes, such as Indy’s brainwashed state and the torturedly slow descent of Willie into lava, as well as the ending action on the bridge. The scenes are long and take a lot of time without keeping the watcher’s interest. The problems are of course tonal, but they also lack stakes.
The main reason why they feel dragged out is of course the lack of actual threat: we know Willie won’t be burnt to crisp, and at the final confrontation we know the heroes will not die. First of all we are not lead to believe that any major character would be in any actual danger, since even horrific scenes leave everyone intact and ready for another punch (or ten).
Whenever such scenes are written, there has to be something else in danger than our heroes: they most often survive anyway. What are the secondary stakes? The golden globes they pilfered from the evil god’s idol? As the Big Bad Evil Guy even states bluntly, but accurately, by the end of the film: let them drop into the river, they weren’t that important anyway and they can just dive them from the riverbed. We never really have anything to worry about – except our sanity, since mostly these scenes work toward the desperation horror and unsettling dread.
Problems in motivation
The lack of tangible character motivation for whatever happens in the film derives from the initial problem of character portrayal, but it is more substantial than that as it feeds into lacking character agency. In short, any of the characters have very little reason to take part in the adventure, nor do their actions affect the world much.
We can parse the main plot points summarily.
First, that the characters end up in Indian countryside is a happenstance. They crash-land a plane and wash up at a native village.
Second, the characters tag along each other to an Indian palace because the villagers tell their “magic stone” has vanished (ruining their crops, as of course is believable to an archaeologist) and their children go missing. This plot point was so poorly presented that I honestly could not keep a track of what was supposed to be what and why should anyone care, or initiate a wild goose chase.
Third, after an assassination attempt at the temple the group spend most of their time either captured and caged or mind-controlled. After they break out, most of the action feels jarringly like cartoonish tumbling.
Finally, even after their escape (on literal tracks in the joy-ride sequence), their nemesis still has all of his troops and the crew is saved by a brigade of soldiers. They are not saved, ultimately, either by their own actions, or even divine intervention (which is the trademark Indiana Jones ending).
Really, most of what actually happens in Temple of Doom is things happening to the characters, or them following tracks (literal or imagined) to new places because they were told to do that (on questionable grounds), instead of the characters actually acting at their own initiative or their actions affecting the world.
Fixing the characters
Willie is of course the most problematic of the three. That should go without saying. There are a couple of ways to go about this.
Willie’s character could be given agency by making it her decision to join the duo in a jewel heist. Indy and Shorty could meet her only at the palace, and it soon turns out she is there for riches, as is Indy – only that Willie is a skilled con artist and high-society scammer. Imagine we’re given proper time to get to know Shorty’s and Indy’s relationship at the start (Indy’s reckless dive into any adventure that might have treasure to grab, and Shorty’s unwavering and childlike adoration). We would know from the start Indy will get his ward into some kind of trouble: something a literal child should probably not get into. But Indiana cannot understand this, made evident by all the trouble he gets them into before seeing the village elder.
Only after a chunk of screentime and concentrating on only two people, we are introduced the female lead in the second act. Willie is a singer and a performer, but she is travelling the world looking for shinies to pocket from the far ends of the world. At the feast Indie and Shorty meet Willie (maybe even have the dance number here), and suddenly confront her the coming night exploring the castle. The thing is, she is looking for an entrance to the temple (which is now confirmed to exist to our male duo) in search of diamonds. Instantly they join forces, and after Willie shows what she’s learned already, Indy pieces the rest of the puzzle together so they gain entry.
This would in turn give us more time with the palace’s corrupt leaders. We would get to know them with an extended, more politically aligned scene at the feast. After Willie’s performance we have dialogue spanning all around, Willie giving some outsider-view exposition to confirm Indy’s suspicions of the palace. Other guests and palace personnel have differing opinions on the outside world politics and how things are handled there at the palace. After we get to know who are going to be selling us later to the demon god, their betrayal hits home harder.
You can leave in the sexual tension if you want, it doesn’t really matter much. Having Willie be an active participant actually would cement in her identity as a con-artist and a socialite scammer.
Then we can turn our eyes to the valuable jewellery after witnessing the sacrifice. Both adults help each other in their greed to reach the diamonds, forgetting that they have an actual child to look after as well. Their greed gets them captured. With this we would even get a piece of commentary on the child-labour scheme going on in the mines.
Fixing the tone
There is a very jarring imbalance between the tones of the opening, middle part and the end. As said, the tone shifts from a cartoonish tumble down a mountainside into decidedly grotesque body horror, into fights with bonk-sound effects and a literal roller coaster ride.
Please decide if the film is supposed to be an adventure flick for a broader audience, or if it’s the suppression of free will and domination of others you want to explore. The former can be fun and silly. The latter is food for horror.
For an adventure flick for the whole family, the James Bondesque opening is fine. The roller coaster ride is actually excellent! So the building blocks are there. However, if there would be horror aspects down the line, the viewer should be warned of what is to come with a darker toned opening scene. Nuance should be added to the characters (as such stories are effective only on a personal level, the horror being of a personal quality) with dialogue and personal narratives (coming back to how inconsequential Willie is) so we know that it was their actions and reckless drive that brought them to the torture they must now escape from.
But even then the problems with the horror scenes are not fixed, as even if we would be actually scared for the outcome of certain potentially lethal moments, the death of a character is rarely enough to make for a memorable moment. It can be, yes, if survival horror is the driving force, but even then it would be good to better emphasise what would be the repercussions if the cult would be left unattended. Loss of lives and suffering of hundreds of people, yes, but it is a far cry of the atrocities nazis committed, who are the antagonists of the other films.
The rule of “never only one threat” should be implemented. Add to those torturous scenes (like the one where Indy is forced to lower Willie into lava) another threat that is on a timer. Make that a final summoning ritual, which will form an avatar of the evil god. Maybe it isn’t Willie at the rack at all, but someone else. Willie and Shorty must both escape from their respective captivities. Shorty will again get through to Indy, who is made a slave working great gears or forced to lower some other person into the lava (making the possibility of them being killed more probable, since they aren’t a main character). Willie steals the golden globes at the last minute, which are now instrumental to summoning the avatar. Together the avatar is not summoned, but a mighty spirit lashes at the skull totem from inside, never managing to penetrate it.
Even if the final action sequences were left intact, that would help in maintaining the adventurous feel where all actors have meaningful agency and they save both themselves and the world through their own actions. They will be saved later by the military, sure, but if we are given enough time for maybe Willie to befriend the captain of the army (at the extended dinner scene), we know why they’ve come, and for who.
Fixing the opening
As has been established, the opening as a whole is a bit of a problem for the movie in tone, in character portrayal and constructing the plot. There are different ways of tackling this.
First scenario: omission
It is quite reasonable to just delete the opening sequence. The film could just as well start with Indiana and Shorty being trapped on the plane, their captors jumping out – as they do – and them doing the crash landing – as they do. The duo and their relationship is explored within the first high-tempo survival scenes, and further discussed when they find their way into the Indian village.
Better yet, the pilots are not bad guys at all. Indy and Shorty are already on their way to the village, but there is simply a malfunction to the plane. The pilots jump off and Indy is forced to crash the plane. Or the pilots do their best, but Indy and Shorty are the only survivors and must track their way into the village. They were on their way to meet with another researcher who has been living with the villagers for years and now asked for Indy’s help in a cryptic message.
However you do the omission of the opening scene, the effect is the same. Furthermore, moving Willie’s dance number to the palace works.
Second scenario: full James Bond
If we decide to go full James Bond on the opening, let’s make the double-agent feel a triple-agent instead. In this version Willie is not just happening to be there, but it turns out she has been after diamonds that the mobsters and Indiana both want. There are again plenty of ways to go about this, but the main idea is that Willie has some actual agency in the setup that surprises both Indiana and the mobsters.
Let’s just choose one: poisonous drinks all around. Willie serves the drinks, and first laughs with the mobsters at Indy’s poisoning. She then is the only one laughing as she produces the antidote from her decollete, and the mobsters cannot find their anywhere. She then bids the vial for the diamonds (we can still have the turning table), and the whole mess of an action scene can commence. Finally the duo dives through the window, Indy holding the diamonds and Willie holding the antidote, Shorty catches them and we proceed as per the original.
This version doesn’t do much else but fixes at least some parts of the complete mishandling of Willie’s introduction.
Third scenario: bring back the mob
This version could be viewed as an extension of the Jame Bond opener. In this version things would play out pretty much as above, but the change is in fact added to the middle parts of the film. Instead of ending up in a palace full of basically random people, much of the work force of the mines below it are actually supplied by the human trafficking of the mob. The army officer that we see on the dinner is actually out there searching for the mob and their tracks. We learn he has a garrison about, and they are sweeping an are that takes some days to cover.
This in turn forces the cult to attempt to reach their end game sooner than anticipated, since they need the divine powers of their idol to counter the army’s assault if they eventually find out what’s going on. Now the agenda of our heroes, the army, the mob presented at the start, and the cult align in a race where everyone wants something, but no two parties want the exact same thing. We also close up the circle that is one of the most basic requirements for a story: coming eventually back to the beginning.
Conclusion
Watching the Temple of Doom after Raiders of the Lost Ark was, undeniably, an ordeal. Many of the parts were agonizing to watch, and mostly not for reasons that were intentional. It was absurd watching Last Crusade after Temple, where everything was done more or less just right.
Temple of Doom reeks of “cheap sequel” without really being cheap by production. Whatever they put in the production, they took it out of the writing. The story barely holds together, and not a single production of this scope and scale should suffer from such elementary mistakes.
THE GAROU RIM GAZETTE 